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Monday, June 15, 2015

This poor book had to stare at me for over a week before I had a chance to read it, but once I started I read it in a day. It helped that we were on a road trip! Hearts Made Whole is the latest book in Jody Hedlund's Beacon's of Hope Series. I enjoyed the first one but this book is by far my favorite of the two.
The book is about Caroline Taylor, a young woman who has the world on her shoulders. Both of her parents have passed away leaving her to raise her younger siblings and take over her father's job as a lighthouse keeper. She loves keeping the light and is competent at it, but the man in charge of her area is dead set against having a women as the head keeper.
When a civil war vet is hired to replace her, she wants to hate him for being there to take the job she needs, but there's something about him, something beyond the fact that he turns to drugs and alcohol to dull his pain. She sees past his injured hand, past everything, to the man he is beneath and she can't help but have compassion on him.
Ryan Chambers just wants peace and quite after the war. He wants to forget his past and just exist. Caroline and her family's presence in his life begins to change all of that. He doesn't want to take the job some else needs, but he needs it too.
The book was such a fun read and had some great inspirational nuggets woven in. I love it when I finish a book and feel not only entertained but encouraged. The romance was perfect, Caroline's anxious yet compassionate personality is easy to related to and the light house setting makes it all even better. Hearts Made Whole is easily one of my top three favorite books by Jody Hedlund (A Noble Groom is my very favorite, in case you want to know!).

If you would like a copy, you can purchase this book on Amazon or your favorite book seller.
Oh, and just fyi, even though this is part of a series, this book could be read on its own and still make sense!

I received a copy of this book to review from the author and Bethany House Publishing.

Monday, June 1, 2015

I love participating in cover reveals but I'm extra excited about this one because the author is Katie Doyle, one of my longtime writing buddies! I love her writing (especially her characters) and I can't wait for her first two novellas to come out.

Ashley "Ash" Prince hates using magic, but that doesn't stop her mother from forcing lessons on her. She resists except when it helps her stepbrother, Charlie.

Charlie is sick and none of the doctors knows why. When Ash has a witch dream, she is determined to find the elusive and rare Ghost Orchid—a flower that could be the key to saving him. Her mother begs her not to go because not only did Ash's dream reveal a way to heal her brother, it also hinted at her death. But when her brother gets worse, she refuses to sit around and let him die. In a race against time, Ash and a strange boy she met in a coffee shop go in search of the Ghost Orchid.

Only someone doesn't want her to find it. Family secrets are revealed and Ash has to decide whom to trust—the mother that raised her, or the boy she just met.